:&quot;I used Crux before starting Arch. Arch started out as Crux, pretty much. Then I wrote pacman and makepkg to replace my bash pseudo packaging scripts (I built Arch as an LFS system to begin). So the two are completely separate distros, but technically, they're almost the same. We have dependency support (officially) for example, although Crux has a community that provides other features. CLC's prt-get will do rudimentary dependency logic. Crux gets to ignore lots of problems we have too, since it's a very minimalistic package set, basically what Per uses and nothing else.&quot;

:&quot;I used Crux before starting Arch. Arch started out as Crux, pretty much. Then I wrote pacman and makepkg to replace my bash pseudo packaging scripts (I built Arch as an LFS system to begin). So the two are completely separate distros, but technically, they're almost the same. We have dependency support (officially) for example, although Crux has a community that provides other features. CLC's prt-get will do rudimentary dependency logic. Crux gets to ignore lots of problems we have too, since it's a very minimalistic package set, basically what Per uses and nothing else.&quot;

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See this [http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?t=3608&start=270#133721 this forum post] for a user's impressions of both distributions.

Arch vs Crux

"I used Crux before starting Arch. Arch started out as Crux, pretty much. Then I wrote pacman and makepkg to replace my bash pseudo packaging scripts (I built Arch as an LFS system to begin). So the two are completely separate distros, but technically, they're almost the same. We have dependency support (officially) for example, although Crux has a community that provides other features. CLC's prt-get will do rudimentary dependency logic. Crux gets to ignore lots of problems we have too, since it's a very minimalistic package set, basically what Per uses and nothing else."

Arch vs Sorcerer/Lunar-linux/Sourcemage

Sorcerer/Lunar-linux/Sourcemage (SLS) are all source based distros, much like Gentoo is, but are originally related to one another. SLS distro's use a rather simple set of script files to create packages descriptions, and use a global configuration file to configure the compilation process, much like Arch's ABS system. The SLS tools does full dependancy checking (including handling optional features) and package tracking (and deinstalling/upgrading). There are no binary packages for any of the SLS family, allthough they all can rollback earlier installed packages easily.

The install involves installing a base system (much like Arch's: i686 optimized, CLI and ncurses menus, only core tools), then recompiling the base system (optionally) after. There is obviously no "standard" WM/DE/DM and they do not install an Xserver during the base installation. However, they do provide you with an easy way of installing one of several Xserver alternatives (xorg 6.8 or 7, xfree86).

Arch vs Debian

Arch is simpler than Debian. Arch has fewer packages. Arch provides better support for building your own packages than Debian does. Arch is more lenient when it comes to 'non-free' packages as defined by GNU. Arch is i686 optimized and thus faster than Debian (NO documented proof here either). Arch packages are more bleeding edge than Debian packages (Arch current is often more up to date than Debian unstable!)

Arch vs Ubuntu

Arch has a simpler foundation than Ubuntu. If you like to compile your own kernels, try out bleeding edge CVS-only projects, or build a program from source every once in a while, Arch is better suited. If you want to get up and running quickly and not fiddle around with the guts of the system, Ubuntu is better suited. In general, developers and tinkerers will probably like Arch better than Ubuntu.

Arch vs Fedora

Fedora is a spin-off from the Red Hat distribution and has continually been one of the most popular distributions to date. Therefore, there is a massive community and lots of pre-built packages and support available. Like all RPM-based distributions, package management is a problem. Fedora supplied Yum as a front-end to manage the acquistion of RPMs and dependency resolution. The system lacks solid yum intergration. Fedora does innovate and recently earned kudos for integration of SELinux and GCJ compiled packages to remove the need for Sun's JRE. Fedora famously doesn't attempt to support the mp3 media format due to perceived patent issues.

Arch vs Mandriva

Mandriva (previously Mandrake), though famed for its installer is a very handholding distro which can get annoying after some time. Another problem is that it is a RPM based distro as discussed above. Arch allows much more freedom and less hand-holding. You actually learn.

Arch vs Frugalware

Arch is text based and command-line oriented (user should be willing to learn).
Frugalware is a Slackware-based system. Frugalware provides better multi-lingual support. Frugalware also provides more local documentation. Frugalware claims to be faster then Arch.
Both use pacman. Their packages are not really very compatible.